[Cob] skylights

[Amanda Peck]

Considering how quickly tin cans rust when left out in the weather, I 
wouldn't use them for my roof.  They might work with a very very steep roof, 
but I doubt that you will ever get the pieces completely flat, and water is 
likely to stay--and rust--in the folds.  You CAN put store-boughten metal 
roofing over purlins, and not use sheathing.  I think that you'd HAVE to use 
sheathing for the tin cans.   I haven't looked, but the price difference 
might accidently be nothing.  Time spent will be less on the barn-type roof. 
  This type of roofing might mean that you'd be using the agricultural style 
metal roof, which may eventually leak, though.

Somebody here recently posted some pictures of a small building with, IIRC, 
a reciprocal roof and a very simple skylight top.  I can't find the link 
right now.  Tony Wrench had that setup, but he was  using a living roof.

The guy at http://countryplans.com/ swears that his skylights don't leak.  
His glass is set with neoprene and butyl rubber tape.  But he does charge 
for his plans.  Not outrageously, but....
.............
Aaron Allen wrote:

has anyone out there done any roofing that
incorporated simple skylights.  by simple I mean home
made.  I have seen/conceived of a few designs, but Im
interested if anybody else has an interest or ideas
pertaining to this.  specifically Im interested in the
interface between glass and different roofing
materials, as I have seen very effective (waterproof)
designs utilizing asphalt shingles, but would like to
avoid asphalt shingles and would like to use metal
roofing for water collection.  one of my ideas,
although I think I read about it somewhere else, is to
use flattened no.ten cans (a large tin can readily
available from the restaurant industry) and shingling
much the same as you would with asphalt shingles.  if
anyone is interested I could describe this design in
greater detail.